Sulfurdown
Mongoose
It was just brought to my attention and I haven't found any comments in the brief forum search on the Nova. But can any one tell me why the Laser/Pulse Array was dropped? :?:
EA Nova
- Thread starter Sulfurdown
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Sulfurdown
Mongoose
That would be "What happened?" but I'm hoping for a "Why did it happen?"
nekomata fuyu
Mongoose
I'm guessing that with the changes to the rules on beams and minibeams, having the option to fire them in beam mode would have been too powerful, and replacing beam mode with a minibeam mode would have run counter to the problems EA are meant to be having with minibeams (see Greg Smith's first post in this thread).
I suppose one option would have been to give the minibeam fire mode the slow loading trait, but then you start raising questions of how that interacts with the normal fire mode not having slow loading, which in turn would need its own explanation (probably along the lines of firing the minibeams means that you can't fire in pulse mode next turn either) just to avoid confusion. Overall, the design team probably decided that it was more trouble than it was worth, and just gave the Nova a more simple weapons layout instead.
I suppose one option would have been to give the minibeam fire mode the slow loading trait, but then you start raising questions of how that interacts with the normal fire mode not having slow loading, which in turn would need its own explanation (probably along the lines of firing the minibeams means that you can't fire in pulse mode next turn either) just to avoid confusion. Overall, the design team probably decided that it was more trouble than it was worth, and just gave the Nova a more simple weapons layout instead.
Sulfurdown
Mongoose
So then why would the DotTA fleet have a relatively weaker ship then the Early fleet? **If the side arcs of the Early Nova has 8AD, then the equivalent AD for the DotTA Nova would be (vsH6 - 17.5AD, vsH5 - 14.4AD, vsH4 - 14.22AD, vsH3 - 15AD) ~ 15AD assuming that you are not using a CAF! or Scout with the Early Nova.
EDIT: I can see where the drop of the L/PA makes sense, though I may not like the deviation from it's AoG & 1E-Mongoose Cannon.
EDIT: I can see where the drop of the L/PA makes sense, though I may not like the deviation from it's AoG & 1E-Mongoose Cannon.
emperorpenguin
Mongoose
Sulfurdown said:
It was felt that 9 times out of 10 it wasn't used, as well as at the time being awkward to playtest
it was considered again when the side beams on the Omega appeared. There was the possibility at one stage of making the main guns of the Omega a dual mode too
Lord David the Denied
Mongoose
That, and laser/pulse arrays were unsupported by the source material and generally stupid? 
sidewinder
Mongoose
What do you mean unsupported? Havent you ever seen the omega fire lasers one second then switch to pulse cannons, with the same weapon. LPA's would have been used more if they had increased the range in laser mode instead of decrease it. Thats how they were in B5wars and I thought it worked well.
Lord David the Denied
Mongoose
Of course I've seen that. The case for LPAs is just as good as the case for CGI screw-ups when the pulses and beams fire from the same point. The Omega's turrets have two distinct parts, it's just it's never clear which part is the pulse cannon and which is the laser.
Well that Omega is actually switching between its huge Narn supplied Heavy Laser Cannon and its Pulse Cannons.
The Nova has never fired a Beam on the show.
LPAs were supported as LLCs during 1e, like the Omega broadside Minibeams. And those arent too good.
Thing is, this can be an endless discussion, because there are enough recoded instances of CGI screwups, plus for the show it never really mattered what kind of weapon they are using. Same like a Starfuries speed.
The Nova has never fired a Beam on the show.
LPAs were supported as LLCs during 1e, like the Omega broadside Minibeams. And those arent too good.
Thing is, this can be an endless discussion, because there are enough recoded instances of CGI screwups, plus for the show it never really mattered what kind of weapon they are using. Same like a Starfuries speed.
Right Hand of God
Mongoose
You can't rely on what a ship had in the previous edition or the game would never be able to evolve
Greg Smith
Mongoose
L/PAs were a creation of AoG. It wasn't based on canon, it was more to do with game balance IIRC.
In ACTA the original Nova's stats didn't have them, but the revised/SFoS version did. The players on the forum asked for something to reflect the weapon description. However the beam part proved to be pretty useless, it scored less hits on average and had less range.
In the early stages of playtesting it was decided to remove it because it was hardly ever used, had no basis in canon and was (by ACTA standards) a fiddly rule.
In ACTA the original Nova's stats didn't have them, but the revised/SFoS version did. The players on the forum asked for something to reflect the weapon description. However the beam part proved to be pretty useless, it scored less hits on average and had less range.
In the early stages of playtesting it was decided to remove it because it was hardly ever used, had no basis in canon and was (by ACTA standards) a fiddly rule.
That is the part I guess I find interesting. You discover something isn't being used because it offers little return over the standard mode. Instead of finding a use for the second mode you drop it as if the idea was the bad part and not the implementation.
As stated above, you could easily have made the beam element useful if it had increased damage for reduced range (a real brawler), extended range at reduced damage (firepower support to a fleet), bypassed a defense at short range (ie don't drop AD so much but only range 4 say, making it a specialist close assault ship).
Lots of creative ways to honor the creativity and effort that went into developing the games and models for this show, and instead you just threw up your hands and said 'it's too fiddly, and we can't find a way to make use of it'. Especially given that we see the beams and such off the Omega, I would have liked to see more similarity in the Nova precursor hull. Eh...
Ripple
As stated above, you could easily have made the beam element useful if it had increased damage for reduced range (a real brawler), extended range at reduced damage (firepower support to a fleet), bypassed a defense at short range (ie don't drop AD so much but only range 4 say, making it a specialist close assault ship).
Lots of creative ways to honor the creativity and effort that went into developing the games and models for this show, and instead you just threw up your hands and said 'it's too fiddly, and we can't find a way to make use of it'. Especially given that we see the beams and such off the Omega, I would have liked to see more similarity in the Nova precursor hull. Eh...
Ripple
basically what would happen with a beam option is this.
Players on this forum would analyze its statistacal advantages and disadvantages and then simply calc out, when it is better/worse than standard mode. And then you just know when to use it, and when its rubbish. Wahoo.
Now you could do an option of it becoming a short range powerful attack, but then oyu could simply add an extra weapon at short ranges, not really a difference there.
Basically this weapon is "wanted" for fluff reason, though these were created by AoG and are never obn the show. Which runs contrary what MGP has tried to achieve with 2e, to stay as close to the show as possible (otherwise Centauri would have to go back to SFOS stats).
Players on this forum would analyze its statistacal advantages and disadvantages and then simply calc out, when it is better/worse than standard mode. And then you just know when to use it, and when its rubbish. Wahoo.
Now you could do an option of it becoming a short range powerful attack, but then oyu could simply add an extra weapon at short ranges, not really a difference there.
Basically this weapon is "wanted" for fluff reason, though these were created by AoG and are never obn the show. Which runs contrary what MGP has tried to achieve with 2e, to stay as close to the show as possible (otherwise Centauri would have to go back to SFOS stats).
